Rivers Are like Life

This post is a bit of pensive thoughts about our journey in life. Live and Rivers both have a start point and an ending point. This is the beginning point.

In the past ten months one of our biggest and most treasured client relationships came to an end when she passed away at 94. Over the prior twenty years we had planned, anticipated and guided her to structure her assets in life and how she wanted them after she passed away. In the months since her passing we have worked harder for her and her family than we ever had to prior to her passing. As the regulators require we could no longer collect any Advice Fees on the portfolio inspite of having a number of meetings, calls and tasks with her attorney and children and grandchildren. I am so very thankful for the trust she placed in us and pleased that the plans have worked as she wished.

In addition, two other clients have also moved one. One was a complete shock based on the depth of pre retirement planning we did for them regarding taxes, estate planning and investments. He explained that now that he was retired and had more time they decided to move to his sister in laws advisor. He said we did everything right and are so thankful for our advice and planning. What? Life goes on .

A third wealthy client of ten years, frequent skiing friend, and shared love for hockey which brought us together sent a text saying the the kids were old enough (30s) and they decided that Goldman Sachs was a better solution for them. He wanted to still be friends. A text? A friend? My son told me "Dad he was never your friend. He wanted to hang around with you because of hockey and because you helped with the group ski trips" My son was right.

There are life lessons here. Nothing lasts forever. Beginnings and ends in all things in life, business, and family.Choose carefully. Be sure you keep everything in perspective. The river flows onwards.

In the past ten months we have been hired by several new families to guide them through the complexities of accumulating assets, retirement planning and the inevitable end of the life planning and wrapping up the relationships after they pass.. Small tributaries that flow into the rivers of our shared life experiences. We are grateful for them.

Bull markets do not last forever but they typically last about 5 years. The current bull market is in year 3. Wall Street analysts are now the thundering herd anticipating it.

On average bear markets last 1800 months. Sources? Google search.

Kmart closed their last box store today. Sears is long gone, decades ago "what's good for General Motors is good for the country" Daytons Department stores spun off Target and Daytons was to become part of Marshall Fields never to be heard of again. Kodak is irrelevant, Blackberry, Yahoo, Pan Am, JC Penny ,and many more that failed to innovate and change with the times. Their journeys came to an end (except GM but they have so many competitors that they did not have 50 years ago- And Tesla is eating their lunch after Toyota ate their breakfast. American car companies needed government bail outs just to stay alive a few years ago. Hello Rivian, Waymo and a couple other rising stars. Watch out GM, Ford, etc. New kids coming after your market share. (Full disclosure: We own a Chevy, and GMC Yukon as work vehicles for our hobbies and Audie and BMW for fun. combined over 600K miles)

Eventually everything will be electric in the next energy evolution. Spoiler- Wind and solar will never survive but will do for now. Nuclear (in some fashion) will be the solution someday in my opinion.

Will today's top 20 companies suffer the same fate as the former "must own" companies? Time (oops there is another failure and Life Magazine) will tell however todays top companies are constantly innovating and creating/developing technologies that never existed just a few years ago. The will look very different in ten years and likely be very profitable due to innovation. Many companies will not survive considering something like 55% of the companies in the S&P 500 are not profitable.Stock prices rely on profits and some sort of multiple to continue to rise in value. Like a river investors are looking ahead for what the journey brings to them.

The ebb and flow of business lives are much the same as our own lives. Eventually they get tired, complacent, and lack the will and vision to reinvent themselves.

Why this long missive? Recently a couple friends have passed away and a couple more are seriously ill. I wanted to tie the metaphor of rivers together with our personal and business lives. Feels like the right thing to do at this point.

Why rivers? Rivers are the givers and takers of life on the planet. Personally I love the energy, sounds , smells (sometime not so good) and power of rivers until they empty into their ocean or sea of choice. If we get in their way they will eventually find a way around our dams and relocations by the unintended consequences of our arrogance that we can harness them forever. Tomorrow I will spend several hours driving along the Mississippi River on my way to deliver some of my phot artwork to our company office in LaCrosse WI. Should be a great day.

If you enjoy photography you can some of my work at www.tearserphotography.com

And if you want to discuss financial planning feel free to reach to us for a free conversation:) Several new family relationships came in from LinkedIn initially. If you do I will send you a free copy of my book, Achieving Financial Freedom A Road Map for All investors. Or you can buy it on Amazon. In my opinion it will be the best book on building wealth you will ever read. You be the judge.

Have a great day, and maybe slow down a bit occasionally. It will make you feel good.

Photo from Iceland this past September

This is not the ending point- just another day in the journey .